One of the key benefits of creating graphs using GTL or SG Procedures is their support of plot layering to create complex graphs and layouts. Most simple graphs can be created by a single plot statement like a Bar Chart. Complex graphs can be created by layering appropriate plot statements to
My last post described my top general business analytics books, those that would appeal to business leaders and analysts alike. This post is a bit more specific, and covers books that will help you to learn for yourself. It is therefore mainly aimed at analysts — but I still hope
When I was a kid, I always looked forward to Casey Kasem's American Top 40 song countdown at the end of the year. Did I listen to check whether my favorite songs had made the list, or to critique how well the people making the list had done in picking the 'right'
In my earlier post about WHERE and IF statements, I announced that the DATA step debugger has finally arrived in SAS Enterprise Guide. (I admit that I might have buried the lead in that post.) Let's use this post to talk about the new debugger and how it works. First,
Data virtualization is an agile way to provide virtual views of data from multiple sources without moving the data. Think of data virtualization as an another arrow in your quiver in terms of how you approach combining data from different sources to augment your existing Extract, Transform and Load ETL batch
Balance. This is the challenge facing any organisation wishing to exploit their customer data in the digital age. On one side we have the potential for a massive explosion of customer data. We can collect real-time social media data, machine data, behavioural data and of course our traditional master and
My preference, of course, would be for everyone to get all the nutrients their body needs for optimal health from the food they eat. In this day and age, however, that is getting harder and harder to do for many reasons…
Do you want to create customized SAS graphs by using PROC SGPLOT and the other ODS graphics procedures? An essential skill that you need to learn is how to merge, join, append, and concatenate SAS data sets that come from different sources. The SAS statistical graphics procedures (SG procedures) enable
In honor of today’s #GivingTuesday, which "harnesses the potential of social media and the generosity of people around the world to bring about real change in their communities,” I’ve been thinking about what constitutes “real change” and the role analytics can play on the many social issues our planet faces.
“Omg, Mom, people are going to think you actually look like that!” My 16 y/o recently got a Facebook account (apparently passé for teens in US but not in Europe and as her circle expands…). So, now she has a front row seat to my (apparently embarrassing) selfies. It’s
est plus près de la maison, está más cerca de casa, está mais perto de casa, dichter bij huis, is closer to home, eh! In analytics and statistics, we often talk about sample sizes. The size of the data sets that you analyze are a measure of the amount of
Has anyone ever broken up with you, and left you thinking "Wow, I didn't see that coming!" In hindsight, maybe you could have seen it coming. At least from a statistical perspective. Let's dive into this topic with some lighthearted discussion, and plot some Facebook data... When it comes to
One aspect of high-quality information is consistency. We often think about consistency in terms of consistent values. A large portion of the effort expended on “data quality dimensions” essentially focuses on data value consistency. For example, when we describe accuracy, what we often mean is consistency with a defined source
In the classic textbook by Johnson and Wichern (Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis, Third Edition, 1992, p. 164), it says: All measures of goodness-of-fit suffer the same serious drawback. When the sample size is small, only the most aberrant behaviors will be identified as lack of fit. On the other hand,
This is the 2nd installment of the "Getting Started" series, and the audience is the user who is new to the SG Procedures. It is quite possible that an experienced users may also find some useful nuggets here. One of the most popular and useful graph types is the Bar
In the DATA step, the WHERE statement and the IF statement (a.k.a. the "subsetting IF") have similar functions. In many scenarios, they produce identical results. But new SAS programmers are taught early on that these two statements work very differently, and in important ways. To understand the differences, it helps
Using the DATASETS procedure, we can easily modify SAS variable attributes such as name, format, informat and label: proc datasets library=libref; modify table_name; format var_name date9.; informat var_name mmddyy10.; label var_name = 'New label'; rename var_name = var_new_name; quit; We cannot, however, modify fixed variable attributes such as variable type
This year’s Polish SAS Forum conference gathered more than 900 enthusiasts of the use of analytics for the generation of innovation. The business session in the Customer Intelligence domain was focused on the methods of meeting the challenge of maximization of revenue while keeping the customers satisfied. Market leaders highlighted
In my previous post, I showed you how to change the titles in graphs produced by analytical procedures; today I will show you how to remove subtitles that procedures display on some output pages. The following step creates output that contains a SAS title ('Illustrate the CIF Plot'), a PROCTITLE
Suppose you are using SAS Studio and the statistical task you need to perform is not a supported option or feature in SAS. I know that sounds almost impossible because the statistical tasks in SAS Studio are so awesome. But, just in case you need to tweak a program or
Longevity research represents facts and figures related to one's accumulation of years on this planet. Hawaiians top the charts in the US with a life expectancy of 80 years while, believe it or not, DC represents the lowest at 72 years. NC, although known for delicacies like sweet tea and barbeque,
Somewhere in my past I encountered a panel of histograms for small random samples of normal data. I can't remember the source, but it might have been from John Tukey or William Cleveland. The point of the panel was to emphasize that (because of sampling variation) a small random sample
Like most of marketers, I find myself reflecting on the evolution of brands. In an increasingly digital world, what is the role of the brand and how can marketers drive more effective customer engagement through Customer Analytics? The last edition of BRANDY16 in Milan brought together diverse speakers and attendees, and generated plenty for
Teacher preparation programs have received some pretty harsh criticism in recent years. For example… “If there was any piece of legislation that I could pass it would be to blow up colleges of education.” –Reid Lyon, National Institute of Health “By almost any standard, many if not most of the
Maybe programming isn’t quite as dangerous as a lightsaber battle, but if you think using SAS to turn data into action feels a little bit like magic, you should know that nobody is better at harnessing “the Force” of DS2 than SAS Jedi Mark Jordan. Mark has a resume that
If you consider yourself as a visualization expert, you strive to create graphs that set you apart from the data analysts and statisticians. Graphs that merely plot the data in a clear/concise manner aren't enough for you. You want your graphs to also be intuitive, easy to read, and provide
In the first three articles of the series we drilled down to Data Management and Data Quality as the basis for fraud detection analytics, to Business Rules and Watch lists techniques that play always a crucial role for claim handlers and fraud investigators and to Advanced Analytics which add a
Our world is now so awash in data that many organizations have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to available data to support operational, tactical and strategic activities of the enterprise. Such a data-rich environment is highly susceptible to poor-quality data. This is especially true when swimming in data lakes –
A SAS customer asked how to use background colors and a dashed line to emphasize the forecast region for a graph that shows a time series model. The task requires the following steps: Use the ATTRPRIORITY=NONE option on the ODS GRAPHICS statement to make sure that the current ODS style
People say that the world has changed, but I think it'd be more accurate to say that people that have changed the world. Social media, big data, big analytics, internet of things … whether you're an executive, a data scientist, or a student, when you hear these buzzwords, you have
